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2013 ESL Jefferson Award Winner: Diane Dailey

Most retirees aren’t memorizing multiplication tables in their spare time but Diane Dailey isn’t crunching numbers and wearing down pencil lead for her sake, she’s doing it for the kids.

Student Ashley Jade said, “She helps us with math problems. If we don’t get it, she’ll go through it step by step.”

Dailey is a volunteer tutor in Charlene Doell’s fifth grade class at School No. 28. Doell nominated Dailey for the award because of her dedication to the students and her commitment to their education. Doell said, “We call her out goddess or our fairy godmother. All the volunteers do a wonderful, wonderful job but I’ll never give up Diane.”

Dailey is in school every Tuesday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. She sees it as her job to not only focus on academics but her favorite thing, introducing the students to foods they would never eat otherwise. Student Jayden Spencer said, “(We’ve tried) like dried apricots and these crackers that were very good and basically like she’s the best.”

Dailey goes above and beyond her title as volunteer, making her the perfect Jefferson Award winner.